


The Frozen Star

by clair_de_neptune



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/F, One Shot, soft sweet gut-wrenching angst, though not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 14:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16834777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clair_de_neptune/pseuds/clair_de_neptune
Summary: The world used to be cloaked in darkness. When the very first being died, it became a star. As other creatures lived and died, the sky soon became blanketed in stars.





	The Frozen Star

**Author's Note:**

> I don't write for the Maleficent (2014) fandom anymore (at least, I've been dormant here for a while), but I found an old work that I wrote ages ago that I thought was worth putting up on here.
> 
> Inspired by Ghost Brigade's song, _Aurora:_
> 
> _Feeling lighter than air_  
>  You are one with the sky  
> Now you understand  
> You are the frozen star 

Trembling fingers run an all-too familiar path through chestnut brown hair—shakily, they trace around the bases of spiraling horns—gently—unsteadily—they turn over as knuckles brush against the side of a temple—carefully, they pull away just enough to ghost across the edge of a pointed ear.

These same fingers reluctantly abandon the pointed ear as they move farther downward—softly, they press against a hardened jawline—like a whisper, they sweep across crimson-red lips—and—quavering uncontrollably—they follow the path down across a swan-like neck, and over a pulse that does not beat.

_It wasn't supposed to be like this._

Gasping, Aurora clutches the limp hand, ignoring the blood caked on its palm, and bites the inside of her lip—hard. She knows she cannot plead Maleficent back to life, but her heart is twisting painfully inside of her chest—more than when she found out about her curse—and she continues to bite down on her lip, face screwing in agony, silently screaming at some greater force for making things happen this way.

_It was never supposed to be like this._

_Aurora_ was the one that was mortal. _Aurora_ was the one that was supposed to die before Maleficent. They had even discussed it, once, in the rowan tree. It was a strange conversation, like they were talking about something in the future that would never come. Something intangible. Hypothetical.

After a while, both of them stopped speaking so morbidly. They had gazed up at the stars, and Maleficent held her close as she whispered, _"The world used to be cloaked in darkness. When the very first being died, it became a star. As other creatures lived and died, the sky soon became blanketed in stars."_

Aurora turned to Maleficent and saw galaxies in her eyes. _"Will I become a star?"_

Maleficent's beautiful, crimson-red lips curled into the faintest of all smiles, and her irises _shone_ so that even the Sky itself was dull in comparison. " _You will be the brightest of all stars, my dear Aurora. You will guide me through the night."_

Then, quieter: _"Like you always have."_

Unaware of the wetness that streams down her cheeks, Aurora cranes her neck up to the night sky, searching desperately among the thousands of stars. She intertwines her fingers with Maleficent's cold, slender ones and croaks, "Maleficent, my faery, where are you?"

Her gaze breaks away from combing through the sky and settles on Maleficent's great wings. Aurora tried to spread them out in the most natural position possible—but the broken bone in one of them, in addition to the empty patches where feathers _should_ be made the faery seem more helpless than before.

_At least she wasn't crumpled and tangled, like how I first found her—_

"No," Aurora stops that thought aloud. She finds now that she has to verbally confirm things to herself—she needs to hear it tangibly, because she isn't quite sure what she is thinking in her head is real or not.

"Maleficent is dead." This is the third time Aurora has said this, and for some reason, she still does not believe it.

And then she repeats the process—running her fingers along various parts of Maleficent—her face, her wings, her feathers, her horns, and finally, her neck, where she feels for a pulse and _reminds_ herself that she isn't there.

Smiling sadly, her lips twitch as she looks back to the sky, seeking a star from a legend. Do beings truly create stars when they die?

Aurora isn't sure, but it's something she can hope for.

She has lost track of time ever since she found Maleficent's body. Minutes translate to hours and days feel like years; in all honesty, she isn't sure how long it's been since Maleficent has died. All she knows is that she is seeking a star. Her eyes—burdened by something darker, more melancholy—carefully examine each twinkling, heavenly body, and try to determine whether it could be Maleficent or not.

_Heavenly body._ Aurora almost laughs. Perhaps Maleficent was right.

When her eyes are red and sore, and her neck cries in protest from being in one position for so long, she reluctantly releases Maleficent's cold hand from her grasp and climbs into the rowan tree. Nestling into their favorite branch, she immediately yearns for warm wings to cocoon around her.

Aurora nearly breaks down right then and there as images of fire and metal destroy Maleficent's precious, precious wings.

Her attention is only diverted by something her tired eyes catch in the sky. There, looking up through the crisscrossing branches and the draping leaves, does she see something odd. A star, throbbing against the black canvas of Night like a heartbeat, mirrors her own inside of her aching chest.

Aurora's lower lip trembles, and she whispers to that star, "You are free again."

* * *

(Later that night—though she is not sure if she's dreaming or hallucinating—she sees Maleficent in the sky, comprised of millions of stars, glittering with celestial grace and beauty. She steps across the limitless plane of black, massive wings dragging behind her as she walks. She raises her palm, upturned to her lips, and exhales.

When Aurora opens her eyes, stardust is stuck in her lashes.)


End file.
